Review: Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning

Image courtesy of Paramount Pictures.

Tom Cruise's death-defying stunts continue to nauseate and thrill in equal measure in "Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning," which is likely to be the last in this long-running and well-received franchise. While this episode is among the lower ranks of the eight films in this series, it has its moments of amusement - including what has to be Cruise's most insane stunt to date.

There's not much reason to explain what is going on in this latest installment - if you've seen the other films, you'll recall where the plot left off from the last one; plus, I'm not sure I could explain the film if I wanted to. 

Calling it convoluted would be an understatement as the film flits from continent to continent, featuring one minor character after another providing expository dialogue and Cruise, once again playing super spy Ethan Hunt, racing against time to stop a sinister, globe-trotting villain (Esai Morales) and a super computer known as The Entity that intends to take over the world's nuclear weapons caches and turn them against mankind.

There's a surprise early in the film and a poignant moment or two after one of the series' central figures is killed, but otherwise there are a lot of plot twists and locale changes - and even a few callbacks to previous "Mission Impossible" movies, most notably the first and third. 

The film starts out solidly enough as Hunt and his cohort attempt to find Morales' Gabriel and hack into The Entity to bring a stop to it. Meanwhile, the U.S. president (Angela Bassett) and her advisors question whether to trust Hunt and his team to prevent a cataclysm or to launch a premeditated attack on the other nuclear powers.

The film's middle section is a bit of a slog as Hunt and company try to track down a sunken submarine that might hold the key to destroying The Entity. There's an extended set piece that takes place underwater that is, no doubt, meant to wow, but instead has a stultifying effect. It's not until the film's final third that it gets back on track.

The finale starts with a standoff in a cave, but then takes to the sky as Cruise pursues Morales in a small airplane. Cruise has long been his own stuntman in the "Mission Impossible" films and has taken part in some wild and impressive feats - scaling the world's tallest building or riding a motorcycle off a cliff - but his extended bout on the plane is likely the most impressive and terrifying. I'll give the man credit: He's fearless.

So, while "The Final Reckoning" is not among the best in the series - it's better than John Woo's second entry, but not as good as some of the other sequels - it's a decent enough sendoff for this long-running saga. It has a great cast of character actors who manage to rise above the script's Hollywood action film cliches to give their characters a bit of personality and it features some jaw-dropping stunt work.